Better Left Unknown
by MaeFlowers
Summary: A sadistic pair of vampires are terrorizing Vancouver Island... Each horrbile crime is diguised as an accident. The Cullens decide to take action. Callie Hennesy becomes just a little too involved in a game of spying. Post-Breaking Dawn
1. Prologue

** A/N: **Hi everyone! This is the beginnings of a story which has been stewing in my mind for a long time... I am really glad that I'm finally able to bring it into the world! As you read through--please review each chapter, or at least one of them. I really need to hear what you think of it.

I am introducing several new characters into the mix, all fictional people from the real-life town of Tofino, BC. Not too much happens in the first couple chapters, but bear with me, because this is going to get a lot better!

With no further ado.... Welcome to _Better Left Unknown_

_**Disclaimer: **_Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight

**Prologue:**

I laughed. I swayed to one side as the old car rounded a corner at an accelerated speed. We were packed in like sardines. We probably smelled like them too. Six teens in somebody's old beat-up Ford. I was too giddy to even remember whose.

Someone in the backseat started to tell a joke. I pulled my eyes from the thick darkness outside of our little sphere of happiness. I tried to concentrate and make out what he was saying, but his voice was as slurred as my thoughts.

Abruptly our driver barked out some intangible syllable. Probably a swear word. I flipped around to face forward again, somehow hitting my head on the roof in the process. A small gasp was all that escaped my mouth before I heard the earsplitting crash.

I didn't feel any pain.

But I couldn't think past what I'd seen on the road. What was it again? I couldn't remember, even my memory was dark and blurred. I'd seen purple. A purple dress. A purple party dress. A girl. Standing still.

What?

I couldn't see anything anymore. The world was black—every light had been extinguished.

Suddenly everything came back in a rush. All of my thoughts cleared. It was as though my adrenaline had been slowed by the alcohol in my blood, but was now finally being released.

I remembered clearly what I had seen on the road in that flashing second; there had been a girl standing on the road. Wearing a purple cocktail dress. One with a low neckline. And nothing on her bare arms. The headlights hadn't illuminated her face, but her arms and neck had, in the dim light, glowed a freakish colour. It had been almost green. It had looked like the grave.

As frightening as the sight had been the next instant was so many times worse. We hit her. Our intoxicated driver hadn't had time to stomp on the brakes.

I didn't understand. It didn't make sense. If we hit a girl why was the car crumpled around me? Why could I hear her screaming? Was it her screaming? No. It was more than one voice. It was my friends. The people I'd been driving with.

Then I heard a new sound. It was the sound of metal crunching and ripping. Impossible. What was happening?

I tried to look at the backseat. I couldn't turn around. When my blurred eyes cleared a little I saw with horror that the entire hood of the already dilapidated car was on my lap.

There was blood. Lots of it.

I heard a terrible roaring noise. Was _I _making that noise? Was I dying? I sounded like an animal, like a lion or a bear.

The roaring continued, then stopped dead. It wasn't me after all.

Abruptly there was no sound at all.

Then a soft sigh.

Then more metal was being torn apart.

This time I could _see_. I saw two pale hands grip the car to my left, on the driver's side, and heave. They bent the metal backwards and then proceeded to rip pieces off as though it were a common occurrence. Suddenly the hands gripped the driver and his was lifted slightly out of his seat. Someone's head came down to meet his neck.

I screamed.

Then, once again, the world was devoid of any noise. His body slumped back down, motionless. The metal was then bent back to exactly where it had been before the pale hands had bent it.

_Maybe I was hallucinating a little_,I told myself. Maybe it was the firemen, pulling everyone to safety. The thought comforted me. Maybe we didn't hit the girl, maybe the driver swerved and we hit a telephone pole.

_A telephone pole?_ Ironic. How many cars had hit poles in the last few months? It was Vancouver's curse. It seemed like every week somebody died on this same road—somebody hit a pole.

I heard a small growl beside me. It was a low, throaty sound. I turned my head.

I don't know what I expected to see. I hoped to see a fireman or a paramedic. But never did I think it would be the girl. Her hands, deathly white, were bending the car.

I saw her face for the first time. She was beautiful. So beautiful it was incomprehensible, but then I saw her sneer of hatred. Her blood-red eyes. She grimaced. Terrifying. Otherworldly.

As she cleared my legs I screamed, I cried, I begged. I was afraid of her. Of what she'd do. Her expression did not change.

She lifted me harshly. And only then—I felt pain. Real pain.

Her hair brushed my face. I'd never felt pain before in my life.

My legs ached subtly—but it was nothing compared to the fire in my neck. I couldn't even scream it burned so hot. And persisted.

Even when I felt my body slump down into my seat again the pain, the burn, the agony, persisted.

More sounds came from behind me as she continued to desecrate the car. I could barely hear it over the pounding roar in my own ears. It seemed to last forever.

Then the only sound outside of my body was an exulted laugh. It sounded light and airy, innocent even. But I knew better.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to yell. I wanted to screech in agony.

I groaned. It was the only sound I still had the power to make. Somehow—she heard.

Footsteps approached me. Then I heard a high, almost soft voice sing into my ear, "Are you still alive? Ah… yes… you are. I shall have to fix that, won't I?"

_Yes!_ I wanted to scream. _Kill me! I cannot stand another second of this agony!_ All I managed was another muted groan.

Then my last sound cut off with a slow gurgle.

The creature licked her lips. And smiled.


	2. Chapter1 Sight and Scent

**A/N:** Here is the first chapter! The writing is not actually as good as I had hoped it might be, but that is entirely my character's fault. I actually had trouble getting the narration right. It doesn't come across as nicely as I would wish but here she is... Carissa-lani Hennesy (Otherwise known as Callie).... If you like her--let me know. If you don't like her--let me know! xD

This story will be from Callie's POV mostly, but I do have several chapters planned that will come from Bella Cullen's POV.

Please bear with me here at the beginning... There's a lot to set up!

**_Disclaimer_: **The Twilight world does not belong to me. It belongs to Stephenie Meyer!

**Chapter 1-- ****Sight and Scent**

"Oh! Oh! I think I see someone," I exclaimed.

Shayla didn't move, and I didn't look at her, but it sounded like she was smiling when she said, "Where?"

"Third window on the second floor. I think I can see something moving." I slowly spun one of the buttons on my binoculars, holding them as still as I could manage. The window I'd indicated to my friend became suddenly clearer and closer.

The house across the street stood three stories high and took up so much room that no other houses were near it. The monster house probably contained more rooms than I could count. Even if I were lucky enough to go inside. I had tried to convince my aunt and uncle to go see it, while it was still for sale, but they wouldn't. They said it was out of our price range, so what was the point of wasting all that time? Besides, there was nothing wrong with our current residence.

The stately house had been painted a boring white colour, until someone had finally bought it. From our perfect vantage point in the tree house behind my house, Shayla and I had watched the renovations. We decided, after watching all the activity in the house, spying through the large windows, that a complete remodeling must have been done. But we couldn't decide why the whole house hadn't been destroyed and rebuilt. The construction crews had done a lot of demolition and construction, but it'd all been on the inside of the regal building. Somehow I was glad that the landmark remained.

But it was pink now. I'd never really been a fan of pink. It was too… girly. Girly was Shayla's thing, never mine. I had always been, and always would be, the tomboy. Sure the pink wasn't that bad, it wasn't like the house had been painted magenta or hot pink… It was some light, very gentle, inconspicuous shade of pink. But it was still pink.

When I'd written that down, however, to file away as a piece of information on whoever had bought the house Shayla had thought it unworthy of mention.

"_Callie," she'd chided me. "It shouldn't matter what colour they chose to paint their house."_

_"Why not? We want to gather all the information we can, don't we?"_

_"Without being obtrusive, yes."_

_"Then of course it matters that the house is pink."_

_"Why?" Shayla asked. Apparently she hadn't seen anything wrong with living in a pink house._

_"There is something wrong with people who want to live in a pink house," I stated confidently._

_"I like the pink…" _

Of course you do_, I thought. "That doesn't count. We're girls. Last I heard there were just as many males moving in as females."_

_She flashed a smile. "Which just proves the superiority of the female mind. We always get our way."_

I couldn't argue with that, after all, I'd always thought of boys in general as very lacking in intelligence. Besides, it wasn't like I'd ever forget the incriminating detail—not while the first thing I saw out my window every morning was the very large, and very proud, pink house.

"Yes!" Shayla cried, startling me. "Someone's carrying a box… Woah—are they that young? I thought you said the kids were all teenagers!"

"That's what I heard. The doctor and his wife have six adopted teenagers. But can you tone it down just a little? We have to make sure no one knows that we are spying on them…"

"Right. I'll grab some paper. I'll write—you watch, okay?"

"Okay." Her handwriting was infinitely better than mine; she wrote faster as well.

After retrieving a clean sheet of paper and a pencil from the wooden floorboards behind us, she poised the pencil above the paper and asked, "What can you see?"

"I see," I began ominously, "a pink house. With white trim. Three stories high. A bay window beside the front door which is-" She groaned. "Okay, okay. I'm still just watching someone carrying boxes into that room you saw."

"Describe the person."

I could only see her back, but I began to relate what I could see. She was extremely short, which had made us assume she was young. Her hair was pitch black and cut very short, it was sticking out in little spikes on her head. If her hair had been blonde I would have called the cut 'pixie', but as it was I couldn't decide if it was supposed to be that or gothic. I zoomed a little more, but just as I did she turned. I stopped talking. I stopped breathing. She was beautiful. Every feature of hers was defined, yet gentle. She had a small nose and a delicate curving mouth. Something about her expression made me think she'd seen me. But that was impossible.

She held my eyes for several seconds and Shayla frowned, waiting to hear what had changed, and then the girl blinked. It was as though a magical spell had worn off and she turned back around and gently set the box she'd been carrying on the ground. Almost instantly she was out of my line of sight, twisting lithely out of the room.

I waited a fraction of a second, and then lowered my binoculars.

"What happened? Did she leave?"

"Yeah. But first she looked directly at me. Like she saw me watching."

Shayla caught the look on my face. "Weird," she said.

"Yeah. Weird," I agreed. Then I smiled. There was nothing I liked better than a mystery. "Maybe there's something to it."

"Maybe there isn't. Coincidence. You never know Callie, maybe she just thinking about some random thing."

"Yeah right. Thought of something, turned around, stared at the neighbor's tree house, blinked and ran away."

"It doesn't sound that bad—there's nothing wrong with looking out the window while you're thinking. I do it all the time and so do you."

"I know, but—but I guess it just seemed like, like she was staring at me, like she saw me," I said, unsettled. "Whatever. Doesn't matter, it just scared me."

"Do you want me to sketch her?" Shayla asked slowly, attempting to shake off the mood that had crept over me.

"Naw… We'll see her in school on Monday."

"Are you sure? She looked really young… like eight or nine."

"She's older than us I think, but she's super short. And she's really pretty."

She stared at me like I'd lost my mind. I'd never been one to compliment anyone, boy or girl. I usually couldn't care less if someone was pretty or not. But this time was different. Because pretty was a drastic understatement when I was referring to my new neighbor.

We continued to watch through the binoculars, and were not disappointed. A few minutes later the girl came skipping back into the room, carrying yet another box. She bent down out of sight, and when she straightened she had a pair of scissors in one tiny hand. She proceeded to unpack several boxes, and she seemed to deliberately avoid the window.

I filed my binoculars by the rest of the windows, but to my surprise almost all of the curtains had been drawn shut. I frowned. Did the girl really see me? Then why didn't she close her blinds? Did she know I was spying but didn't want to raise suspicion?

When I voiced these concerns to Shayla, she told me to stop reading so much into it. Again.

"CARISSA! SHAYLA!" A loud voice called. It was my Auntie Chriss, my mother's sister, who had been my guardian for nearly three years. She always called too loudly. We would hear her if she just spoke normally like Uncle Damian, but she seemed not to fathom that. If she could not see us then in order for us to hear her she must yell at the top of her voice. I wanted to snarl at her; we were trying to be discrete. But I kept my voice even when I replied.

"Coming," I said. Then I added under my breath, "My name's Carissa-lani…"

Shayla smiled, knowing how much I hated it when Auntie cut off part of my name. If she refused to call me Callie, why couldn't she get my actual name right? Was it really that hard?

We climbed quickly down the swaying rope ladder; the instant our feet hit the ground we ran up the hill, across the lawn and into my house. Ours was the last one on the street, the road in front of our house ended in the ocean just past our secret treetop fort.

It was lunchtime on a Saturday, which meant that there was most likely canned soup and some sandwiches on the table. I was right. Auntie was predictable. But I didn't mind. We scooped up our plates, said thank you to my aunt, and were out the door again. This time we couldn't run, unless we wanted to spill hot soup all over our clean clothes, that is. When we reached the tree I passed Shayla my bowl and plate, and climbed up.

I snuck a quick glance through my binoculars, and gasped. The girl was still unpacking her room, still nowhere near the window, but now the room was full of furniture. There were two dressers, a nightstand, a mattress on the floor and all the parts for a bed leaning against one wall. Had it all gotten there while we ran inside to grab our lunches? I asked myself. No, it couldn't have.

For the second time today I found myself thinking the word, impossible. Impossible that they knew we were spying. Impossible that she had gotten that much furniture into her room in the mere minutes we had been gone. I shook it off.

Calling down I asked Shayla if she was ready. She was, so I lifted the ice cream bucket off the floor, straightened the rope and threw it down. She caught it, steadied it, and placed the two sandwiches inside. While I drew the bucket up by the rope, which was tied to a thick limb above my head, I told her about the mysterious furniture in the girl's bedroom. I thought she'd finally believe me that there was something strange going on.

"I'll check again," I said when I'd received nothing more than a roll of her eyes, pulling the two grilled cheese sandwiches out of the bucket and throwing it down to Shayla. I ascertained that nothing else had changed and turned back to lean over the edge and watch her try to balance one of the bowls of soup.

"Don't lean over the edge like that," she grunted. "you'll fall."

"No I won't. Don't you care about what's happening over there?"

"Sure I do, but I'd forget about it pretty fast if you fell out of the fort and broke your neck."

"I'm not going to break my neck by falling ten feet to the ground. I might break my leg though."

"If you fall headfirst you could easily break your neck."

"Don't you want to hear about what that girl is doing?"

"Callie, right now I need to get this stupid ice cream bucket steady, make sure you don't kill yourself, and be thinking about someone unloading boxes all at the same time… Kind of hard."

"Stupid ice cream bucket? Would you rather carry the bowls of hot soup up the rope ladder in your teeth?" I shot back quickly.

"I didn't mean it wasn't a good idea. I just meant that… well, it wasn't designed to carry soup!" Every time Shayla released the bucket it would swing out quickly and slosh the soup around, threatening to spill it on the ground.

"The sandwiches are up here, we could just forget about the soup…" I said, turning around to pick up the binoculars. The spiky-haired girl was loading her dresser with clothes covered in frills and sequins, which she was pulling out of the boxes. She was definitely not gothic. There were too many pinks and reds in the bucket. And too many sequins.

"And then what? Let Tide eat it? I don't think so," Shayla retorted.

"Sure, Tide deserves a treat once in a while, doesn't he?"

"He doesn't need to eat our mushroom soup. It's pretty still now, want to try lifting it?"

"Okay. You'd better move over though Shay, because if I drop it I don't want to burn you."

"Callie! You'd better raise that bucket slowly and carefully. If you drop it you are in so much trouble!"

"From you? Yeah right!" I laughed. What's the point of having a best friend if you don't treat them like a sister?

"I'll just sic your brother on you!"

"Whatever—even he can't beat me up."

"Yes he can," she said, unimpressed. It was probably true, although he'd never tried to before. Jared was two years older than me, and was the star player on the high school football team, even though he was only in grade eleven.

"But only if he can catch me. I'm too fast," I said. Another statement that was probably true; I excelled in all things Track and Field.

The soup eventually made it into the tree house, thanks to Shayla's extreme patience. Within seconds she was scrambling up the ladder and through the trapdoor. Just as she disappeared from his sight, my dog whined.

"Poor boy," Shayla said.

"Yeah—we should figure out a way to get him up here. He'd love it!"

She gave me an odd look. "How are you planning on doing that? Even if you could find a basket big enough the twine would snap. He's too heavy."

"That's it!" I said. "I don't need a basket, we have his kennel—the handle on that's metal it wouldn't break! All I have to find is rope strong enough."

"You think that you can lift him this high? Even if I helped you it wouldn't work. He's huge!"

"Leverage. As long as this branch above me here can hold his weight—then I can easily devise a way for us to pull him up without too much trouble."

"Forget about it Callie," She said, swallowing a bite of her sandwich. "It's bad enough that you're going to get yourself killed by flailing around up here you want to bring Tide up? No way."

"I'll figure it out. Just you wait," I said quietly. I took a bite before proceeding to scowl at the bowl in front of me. "I'm really contemplating taking this soup in to the microwave… It's really cold."

"Go ahead," Shayla said. "As long as you know you have to bring it back up all by yourself."

I laughed.

I felt like I'd drained all of my strength simply by moving one arm and slapping the snooze button. The annoying buzzer ceased immediately. I wanted to growl, but I reminded myself why I was doing this and sat up.

6:15

6:15

6:15 a.m. It was flashing at me, the only light in the small room. Until I ripped my curtains open. As the happy sunshine invaded I squinted, unable to see past the searing brightness. I closed my eyes and covered my face, wishing that my eyes would adjust faster.

As soon as I could I forced my eyes open and found the bottom left drawer of my familiar dresser. I didn't even bother pulling off the tee-shirt I'd worn to bed, it was much simpler just to pull a sweater overtop. Still not feeling quite awake yet, I replaced my comfortable black shorts with a pair of sweat pants. Once I start running I would feel better.

This was Shayla's idea. Obviously. I did enjoy running in the morning, but I had never, ever attempted to do one before school, because I was too lazy to get up early enough. Usually. Why I ever allowed her to talk me into this, I'll never know.

She said it would be fun, it would be good for Tide, and, most importantly, there was a boy she had to impress. Apparently she thought he'd notice her if she was sleep-deprived.

Boys, I thought. She's going to put in all this effort to look more fit…like he's even going to notice.

I snorted when I saw that Tide was still asleep. I was waking up my dog so I could take him for a walk. Backwards. I took him walking every day, but usually he had to convince me. Had I really agreed to do this every morning?

"Come on buddy…" I said lethargically. "We'll run to Shay's house and then we'll jog back." We had done it on Friday morning as a test and it'd taken an hour.

Then Saturday the doctor finally moved in. We all thought they were going to move in before school started, but apparently something had come up and they'd stayed wherever they were for another four months. My aunt was a nurse at the hospital where the father would be working, and she had heard that they had stayed for a wedding. I thought that sounded strange. Why would you postpone a move for four months so you could attend a wedding? If they really were as rich as Auntie assumed they were why couldn't they just fly back when the time came? Very suspicious.

So now it was the middle of the school year and they were just joining us.

After the first few steps out the door I was almost as excited as Tide. He leapt up and twirled sideways. I started running. He ran with me, pulling lightly on the leash with each of his gigantic strides. Just as though he was asking for a little more room to run.

I glanced up at the pink house, which was rearing higher and higher the closer we came to it. Bryan had said that there was a pool and a hot tub inside. I felt a small flare of envy.

Just as that thought crossed my mind Tide rebelled, stopping dead. A low whimper escaped through his teeth. I jerked on the leash, but he shivered and pulled me back three steps.

"What's wrong?" I asked harshly, a little embarrassed. I gave a gentler tug on the leash, but got no response. Tide's nose was flaring and his jaw was clamped shut. For the first time ever I saw fear in his trusting eyes.

"Tide?" Another tug. No reaction. I groaned. "What the heck?"

His eyes flicked away from me and he focused on the large house. I nearly growled at him. I couldn't fathom what was prompting his fear. We'd walked past this house all the time in the summer and never had he shown any qualms; even when power drills and chainsaws resounded from inside.

I leaned back, pulling with all of my weight, trying to coerce him forward. "Come…on," I grunted roughly. Suddenly he seemed to slip into predatory mode. I'd never seen the combination of fear and aggression in a dog before. He snapped at me. His teeth flashed harmlessly through the space between us. I smacked his nose and reprimanded him, all the time trying to hide the uneasy fear that was growing in me. What was going on? Why did Tide, the biggest teddy bear of a dog ever born, bite at me?

Only when he began running circles around me did I realize what he was trying to do. He smelt danger emanating from the pink house, and he was trying to get me away from it. It was like he was trying to herd me away.

I slowly allowed him to force me back down the street. When Tide tried to escort me across the road to go back into our house, however, I stopped walking.

"This is dumb," I told him. I knew I sounded silly talking to my dog but I was sure no one was listening. The sun was barely even up yet. "That house is no different now than it was three days ago and you know it."

But even as I said the words I knew they were false. There was something different. The doctor's family had moved in.

**A/N:** Did you like that? Did you hate that? Drop a review!

By the way... can you guess what Alice saw? Just hang in there--you will find out soon!

**_Preview of _Chapter 2**

_Their every movement as they crossed towards the school was effortless, completely belying the fact that they were walking across an uneven lawn._


	3. Chapter2 Silver Van, Black Car

**A/N:** Good Evening/Morning! Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present Chapter 2!!!! Please read, reviewing is of course optional but I'd absolutely loooove to hear from you!

Please bear with me here at the beginning of this story... There's a lot to set up!

**_Disclaimer_: **The Twilight world does not belong to me. It belongs to Stephenie Meyer!

**Chapter 1-- ****Silver Van, Black Car**

I knew I should try to force my dog to walk with me past the house, but I was feeling more than a little irrational. I stood for a while to calm down, and knelt down to pet Tide while I waited for the flood of suspicion and confusion to recede. I was again grateful that it was so early, that there wasn't a chance I was being watched, because it now meant that no one could have witnessed the embarrassing display.

Tide was still edgy, but we made it past the house by staying across the road and moving fast. He nearly pulled me over in his hurry to escape. Whatever he was afraid of, it was bad.

I crossed the street after we passed and couldn't help but shiver as I looked into the thick trees surrounding the house. Why the property hadn't been quartered off and sold before now I had no idea. The pink monster lay only five hundred meters from the water's edge, where ours was closer to three hundred, but where the distance on our side of the road was open, sunny and inviting, on this side there was something a little frightening. The grass was long and the forest seemed to wrap itself around the house like a shroud of secrecy, hiding everything inside from prying eyes. Even so, I couldn't put my finger on exactly what was so off kilter. Maybe it was the closeness of the trees, I don't know, but I didn't like it.

Had Shayla been with me, I'd have asked her to slap me. I was acting so dumb. Trees were good. I liked trees. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the trees. Nothing at all.

Once I could no longer see the house or the forest over my shoulder I relaxed into my run. By the time I reached the Steele's I felt much better. So did Tide. He seemed to have completely forgotten his fear and aggression.

I knocked on the door, breathing quickly. No one answered for a few seconds. I knocked again, a little harder. It would be just like Shay to forget to set her alarm. I was about to head around to the back door, when I heard the deadbolt grinding. Shayla's littlest sister pulled the door open.

"Mikayla? What are you doing awake so early?" I asked the bright-eyed girl who ushered me in. She began to pet Tide.

"I was awake before the sun! I am the only one that could wake up by myself so early and I sat on _that_ windowsill." She flipped around, sending her long dark hair into a spin around her neck, and pointed into the kitchen. "I watched the sky go purple and red and pink and yellow and it was so beautiful!"

"You're the only one awake?"

"Yep. And, oh Callie! The whole house is so quiet it's giving me goosebumps!"

"Then why on earth did you open the door? If you're all alone?"

"Oh—Don't worry! I peeked through the peekhole! I don't know what it's really called but you know what I mean, that thing. If it wasn't you I would have ran back to make breakfast. I started it—but I still have to finish, I decided to make toast! But I knew you were coming so wasn't scared to let you in."

"Will you keep Tide company for a minute? I need to go dump some water on your lazy sister's head."

"Don't do that, Callie! You know if you do she'll be grumpy all day long!"

"She's going to be grumpy anyways, getting up this early," I said. "Silly girl. She should've known better than to sleep in this morning."

Mikayla continued petting Tide, who rolled over in a show of pleasure. I slipped past them into the kitchen and, seeing smoke rising in little wisps, popped the toaster. I almost wished that it had set the smoke alarm off. It was a gallant effort to make breakfast on Mikayla's part, but the toast had been completely blackened. I grabbed a glass out of the cupboard and poured a small bit of water into the bottom, more at home here than almost anywhere else.

Shayla and I had always joked that we split our time evenly, half at her house, half at mine. When I was twelve I withdrew a lot from our friendship. It was the year my parents had died. But after a while we were friends again, and closer because of it. The house I'd grown up in had been sold and Jared and I moved in with our Auntie Chriss and Uncle Damian. Even after nearly three years, I nearly felt more comfortable here than I did there.

I tiptoed into Shayla's room with the cup of water, careful not to wake her. I almost laughed when I heard the radio blaring away. She did turn her alarm on… it just didn't wake her up.

I poised the cup high above the bed. I wasn't so mean as to have put cold water into it. It was lukewarm. There were only a few droplets anyways. Hardly anything at all.

I tipped the cup.

She started upright. One droplet made it's way quickly to her chin. She blinked, and then glared at me.

"You can go back to sleep if you want, Shay. But I thought you wanted the exercise," I said.

"Ugh."

"Is there anything I can say to get you out of that bed? Or should I get Tide to come lick you?"

"No…" What question was she answering?

"Nevermind, I know a word that will definitely do the job."

"I don't think so Callie," she said into her pillow.

"Derek…" I whispered, mindful of her aversion to anyone else knowing about her crush.

"I think I hate you right now," she said, but she got out of bed anyway.

"No, you aren't capable of hating anyone."

"Sure I am."

"Whatever," I said. Then I remembered Tide. "Want to hear something weird?"

"Is it about the people across the street from you?"

"Yes."

"Then, no."

"You don't want to hear it?"

"No. You're being silly about it. Besides, we'll be meeting them today."

"I know, but this isn't really about them… It's about Tide."

"Huh?" She was still sleepy, so I took advantage of the one-syllable query.

"He got really, really scared when we tried to walk by the house this morning. He freaked out on me. It was so bizarre; I have never ever seen him act like that. He even tried to bite me!"

"_Tide_ tried to bite _you_?"

"Yeah."

"He never bites!" _She is waking up_, I thought.

"He never gets afraid either."

"Weird."

"Very," I agreed. "And there's only one thing that's changed since the last time we walked by."

"They moved in," she frowned. Then threw the light bag containing her school clothes at me.

"Uh-huh."

Our run back to my house was a lot slower than I'd hoped. We were running late. Tide did not react this time as we ran by the house, but I made sure we stayed on the opposite side of the street. Shayla was gasping and we were both sweating when we burst through the door, prompting a smile from my uncle.

"Did something scare you girls?" He asked lightly.

"No," I answered, because Shayla probably couldn't talk if she wanted to. "We were just running."

"You must have been running pretty hard then."

"Yeah… Just thought it would be nice to get some exercise…"

"Why didn't you go after school? You aren't going to have that much homework, are you?"

"I don't know… I guess it's better to get it over with. Jared always picks Shay up on our way there, it'll save time this way." I clicked Tide's leash off as I talked.

"But you get to spend less time in your beds, getting your sleep."

"Just what I was thinking," I grumbled.

"It's more time together though!" Shayla offered, pulling me with her around the corner and past the living room.

"Why is he awake? Isn't it still really early?" She asked, sounding at least a little curious.

"No, it's already well after seven…"

"Oh snap! We're late!"

"Yeah. Are you going to shower?"

"Well, do you think I can? I need to wash all this sweat off of me and have a chance to do my make-up and hair."

"Go ahead. I'll just wait until this evening." It gave me some time, while she got ready, to do what I really wanted to.

I ran into my room and very quickly dressed for school. Jeans and a clean tee shirt. Just like every other day. I pulled on some clean socks and found an elastic band. Whipping up my thick dirty-blonde hair into an untidy ponytail I flashed a smile at my reflection. I looked so much better than I had at one point.

Where I was once hardly able to force a smile, the one gracing my lips now was natural. Once I'd had perpetual bags under my eyes; they had disappeared with the fading of my nightmares. I didn't look like I was dying anymore. I looked okay. I was strong. I was proud of myself. I made it through.

Even though I'd just wanted to throw myself in front of a speeding vehicle and die, I didn't. I lived, I moved on. I had no parents, but I was coping. I was okay.

Jared was strong too. He'd been the lucky one. He just went and tackled anyone who got in his way. On the field, that is. Jared threw himself into football, and I drowned myself over and over in an attempt to learn to surf. It's harder than it looks, and definitely constituted enough of a distraction for me.

But we were better now. We could both joke and laugh, everything was okay again.

I picked up the family picture on my nightstand and took a careful look at each face before I leapt up and ran outside. I had that picture burned into my memory. I would never forget what they looked like. I ran straight to the tree house with Tide on my heels.

"Don't worry, buddy," I said to my black and white shadow. "I promise I'll get you up there someday, somehow. Just not right now, okay?"

He waited as he always did, curling up in the sun, while I clambered up the swaying ladder. I immediately grabbed the binoculars. Just to check. There were lights on in the house and I saw a little flicker of movement behind one of the curtains, but that was all. I wondered abstractly if they were nervous. Getting ready for the first day at a new school must be hard. I would be petrified.

Frustrated that there was nothing new and impatient to meet the family, I rocked back on my feet and dropped the binoculars. I snatched up one of the many pieces of loose paper and scribbled down every detail I could remember about what happened this morning in front of the pink house. I tugged on a drawer and slid the page into the file labeled 'Random Occurrences'.

Shayla and I, convinced that this was the perfect place for a top-secret headquarters, had disassembled a nightstand. We'd carried it up in pieces and then put it back together. The three drawers it contained now served to hold all of our confidential files. Over the first few months of the semester, we had created profiles of nearly every student attending our school. Each folder contained everything we could find out, including middle names, hair colour and eye colour, number of siblings, number of pets, favourite foods, favourite colours and practically everything between.

Sometimes we'd ask questions, but usually we would just sit quietly, watch and listen. No one had ever said anything to us, but I wondered if they'd noticed as we silently collected information from them.

We already had a file for the short girl we had seen the other day, one for the father (we knew that he was a doctor, but not much more), and another, which was empty of information, with the name 'Emmett Cullen'. The last one we were able to create was because Auntie Chriss had heard the name mentioned at work as one of the children of Dr. Cullen.

I looked at the three measly files, the biggest of them didn't even have a name on it, just a brief physical description, and somehow felt even more excited to get to school.

When I grew tired of watching their curtains sway in the wind I went back inside. Jared still hadn't gotten out of bed. Auntie Chriss hadn't come home from work yet, she'd taken a night shift at the hospital from one of her co-workers. Uncle Damian was watching the morning news. It seemed another driver had wrapped his vehicle around a pole. This time it was a fence post. The reporter actually called it fortunate, because this time only two people had been in the car, Michael Weittzer and his girlfriend, Carman Kolm. I shuddered. How could they call it fortunate? Two people had died last night. I wouldn't call that fortunate at all. I would call it a tragedy.

This tragedy, however, had been repeated again and again on the morning news. It had become predictable. Every week, usually Saturday or Sunday night, several people from the island died in an accident identical to this one. Everyone had begun to wonder about it. This kind of accident wasn't usually common unless there was some sort of concrete reason why they had crashed. Usually alcohol.

People had begun to call it Victoria's 'curse'. Like there was a curse on the city… If that was true, I could only be glad we lived in Tofino. I moved into the kitchen, trying to ignore the burning fear that the news story had planted. Something wasn't right about it. Maybe it _was_ a curse.

I heard the water turn off upstairs and knew that Shayla would still be twenty minutes before she considered herself even close to presentable. If she was very fast we might only have to wait fifteen.

I pulled the bag of baby carrots out of the bottom drawer and made two small bags of them. Then I proceeded to pull out two frozen yogurt tubes, and two cereal bars. I cut two oranges and made four sandwiches. _Good enough,_ I thought, and slapped everything into our two lunchboxes.

We really should have just taken money and eaten at the school cafeteria, but my mom had always wanted to make sure we were eating healthy. At the time Jared and I had both wished that we could just eat there like everyone else. After Mom died, though, we didn't want to change it. Eating out of a lunchbox reminded us of her.

I tried to smile, but I felt the tears begin to sting my eyes. I was grateful when Jared came into the kitchen.

"I just finished packing our lunches," I said to distract myself.

"What'd you put in?" He asked.

"Uh… There's two sandwiches, a bar, a yogurt tube, some oranges, and some carrots in there."

"Sounds good, thanks Cal!" I smiled for real then.

"You're welcome." He was about to walk away, but I called him back. "Jared?"

"What?"

"Do you think that you could do us a favour today at school?"

"What do you want me to do?" He asked.

"Well… we are trying to learn as much as we can about the doctor's family…"

"Yeah—for your files, eh?"

"Yeah. If any of them are in any of your classes do you think you could help us out?"  
"Maybe… What do you and Shayla want to know?"

"Thanks! And… uh… I guess just whatever you can figure out. Descriptions, personalities, that kind of thing. Names are important today too, we don't know anything at all."

"Okay little sis, I'll keep my eyes wide open."

"Thank you!" I said again.

We all climbed into Jared's little green car, which really wasn't green anymore because of too much exposure to the wet atmosphere, and headed to school. I was so giddy I could barely contain my excitement. Shayla kept twisting her hair around and around in her fingers. Jared thought that we were hilarious.

I was so eager I almost didn't notice when a sleek, low black car with dark tinted windows pulled out of the trees behind the pink house. Right behind it came a silver van, which also had tinted windows. They both looked like very nice cars to me, but I didn't think much of it until I noticed Jared staring through his rearview mirror at the small black vehicle right behind us. That must mean something; Jared knew cars.

Watching the smooth cars slide effortlessly behind us I felt a small thrill. The mysterious family was in those cars. The tint, even the front window was dark, was a little eerie. Like it was hiding something sinister. _Or something exciting_, I thought.

It was a little weird to know that someone was behind the windows, and probably at least the driver of the black car, if not both drivers, watching us. Jared's old car wasn't tinted at all. Anyone outside could see right in to the car; could see us clearly. Weird.

The only parking spots left were the farthest few from the school, because we were late. I was a little surprised when both vehicles tailed us all the way into the school. Wasn't the van large enough to hold six students?

I jumped out quickly and pretended not to care while I was really studying everything carefully. Shayla followed, finally as excited as I was. We pretended to start a conversation. But we both knew that the other was paying no attention. We did it when we wanted to listen in or watch something without being too conspicuous.

Jared looked as us, a little tiny bit annoyed, and waited. He probably wanted to be in out of the rain, but I didn't care. It was just a drizzle today anyways. It could be _much_ worse, especially for the beginning of January.

The first one to step out of either car was the driver of the efficient-looking black car. He didn't turn to us, but I did not think he looked young enough to still be in high school. The man was moderately tall, with blonde hair and a striking physique.

Then the doors of the silver van all opened and four younger looking people stepped out. Out of the passenger seat came the tiny girl we had seen from our tree house. The driver of the silver van was also tall, and also white blonde, although his hair was closer to the colour of honey and was a messy sort of mop on the top of his head.

He crossed around the front of the vehicle to speak quietly with the pixie girl. The height difference between them was shocking. He must have been a foot and a half taller than her. She had to tip her head up very high to even see his face.

While they spoke my eyes took in the other two who'd come out of the van. The boy caught my eye first. He was massive. Taller than either of the other men, who both looked over six feet tall, he was also wider and muscular to the extreme. There was a certain playfulness to his face, however, as he helped his companion out of the vehicle. She made me gasp, despite myself.

I tried to throw myself again into my fake conversation with Shayla, but it was hard. She was just as blown away as I.

This girl also looked older than the average high school student, they all did, except maybe the short pixie girl. This girl was also tall though not nearly so bulky as the boy how lifted her hand as she stepped gracefully out of the vehicle. Her every movement was beautiful. Her blonde hair curled lightly and elegantly framed her face. She appeared to be the most beautiful person I had ever seen. Rivaled only by her sister. She disgraced any model in any magazine.

The four of them mixed together into one group and stepped towards the man who'd first stepped out. I heard several words as the tall blonde spoke to him. He said something about the hospital and I also heard 'drop us off' mingled with words I couldn't understand. I growled a little. We were too far away.

_Why had only five shown up? Was the first man really a student?_ I wondered. Before I could think any further, however, the biggest one knocked on the back window of the tiny car. He said something I didn't catch and then burst into uproarious laughter.

Whatever he'd said, no one else seemed to think it very funny. He got a glare from the model girl, but none of the others even reacted.

The door he'd tapped on opened then. Another boy stepped out; he looked to be the youngest among them, his hair a burnished bronze. He turned immediately around as another girl alighted from the black car. She had long brown hair that waved almost to her waist and a slight figure. She was the only one who seemed to be average height, for even the youngest boy who'd alighted with her was fairly tall and the only one who was short was freakishly so. She was astoundingly beautiful as well.

After another half of a second the whole troupe set off towards the school building. I wondered aloud, once they were out of earshot, about how none of them looked at all alike. The only similarity I had seen was that they had all been wearing light colours, and jackets that would afford them some protection.

Their every movement as they crossed towards the school was effortless, completely belying the fact that they were walking across an uneven lawn. Just as I noted this as something to jot down later, the uncanny grace and smoothness of all of them, I saw the youngest boy slip a little. He tottered to the side and looked like he would have fallen had his sister not grabbed his arm.

The girl with the brown hair held on to his arm, like she was afraid he'd fall again. Most of the others turned to watch him with bewildered expressions, except the tiny dark-haired girl. She began to laugh at him, doubtlessly for being a clumsy. The biggest one joined in.

**A/N: **How's that? I felt like this chapter was a little bit all over the place, but I needed to establish some characters and set the scene for the Cullen's first day at school. I really hope you enjoyed it! The third chapter is currently undergoing construction--but will be up before spring break, I promise.

Tidbit for you: Chapter 3 will be from Bella's POV!! YAY!!

**_Preview of _Chapter 3_: _**

_Edward tensed beside me again, his gaze locked with Alice's. Both were looking into the future, and were obviously horrified by what they saw._


	4. Chapter3 Tonight

**A/N: **Hey hey hey, it's chapter 3!!! This chapter is from Bella's POV…

The song that Edward and Bella are listening to in this chapter is Some Hearts by Carrie Underwood. It's a great song!

This chapter is dedicated to Rubysun13: Whose great reviews on have kept me excited about this story!

_**Disclaimer: **_Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer.

**Chapter 3--Tonight**

Our rooms were perfect. I had Esme to thank for that, of course. She had gone a little bit overboard designing the floor plan of this house. Edward and I had two rooms; each one looked just like the average teenager's bedroom, albeit a little larger, but a hidden door connected them through the oversized closets.

We'd unloaded the vehicles and set up both rooms in record time, and now Edward's wall-sized stereo was playing one of our favourite songs as we twirled together silently.

Sometimes I got so lost in his eyes that nothing else mattered. There's nothing else in the world that could matter. It was just he and I. We really were made for one another.

The first couple of years of our relationship had been a whirlwind. Everything had moved so fast. It seemed like we had encountered everything and anything that fate could throw between us. Every hindrance, every stumbling block, and every danger possible, but we overcame them all.

Danger. That time was fraught with danger. It was one of the problems of being a human girl falling in love with a vampire. There's a dangerous world out there. One that the human race is blissfully unaware of.

My being a human wasn't the problem, per se, but _not_ being a vampire brought a plethora of issues. It did come between Edward and I, in more ways than one.

I'd had at least five vampires try to kill me at some point in my history… that's not counting the ones who'd wanted me dead but never did anything about it. Well, now I was dead.

And I was so perfectly, wonderfully happy. I was a vampire, but I loved it. It was sort of a dream come true for me. I'd spent a lot of my last moments with a beating heart wishing that I also belonged to the realm of the immortals. Now I did. I belonged here, in Edward's arms.

The song changed. I smiled. It was an older song, from 2005, if I remembered correctly. The album had been released in November of that year and was a huge hit. We were using the shuffle feature on the stereo to go through the extensive playlist of our favourite songs. This song always reminded me that only two months after I first heard it, I met him.

_I've never been the kind that you'd call lucky_

_Always stumbling around in circles_

_But I must've stumbled into something_

_Look at me; am I really alone with you?_

I smiled a little broader as I thought of my now much improved balance. I hadn't stumbled over anything in a long time. The song described so many of my feelings about Edward.

_I wake up feeling like my life's worth living_

_I can't recall when I last felt that way_

_I guess it must be all this love you're giving_

_Never knew, never knew it could be like this_

It was perfect for this moment. I hugged Edward a little tighter as we spun around and began to sing along with the chorus.

_But I guess_

_Some hearts they just get all the right breaks_

_Some hearts have the stars on their side_

_Some hearts they just have it so easy_

_Some hearts just get lucky sometimes_

_Some hearts just get lucky, lucky sometimes_

_Now who'd have thought someone like you could love me?_

_You're the last thing my heart expected_

_Who'd have thought I'd ever find somebody_

_Someone who, someone who makes me feel like this_

_Well I guess_

_Some hearts they just get all the right breaks_

_Some hearts have the stars on their side_

_Some hearts they just have it so easy_

_Some hearts just get lucky sometimes_

_Some hearts just get lucky sometimes_

_Oooh_

_Even hearts like mine get lucky_

_Lucky sometimes_

_Even hearts like mine_

_Oooh_

Edward let go of me for a fraction of a second and I stopped singing, he had turned the music down significantly.

"Don't stop," he whispered into my ear. I shivered lightly.

"But you turned the music off," I accused.

"You can still hear it. Besides, her voice is horribly unappealing compared to yours."

"Carrie Underwood is a trained, professional singer who's sold millions of her albums. If I remember correctly she started it all off by winning a nationwide contest… _American Idol_. I don't think she could have done that if her voice was that unappealing."

"It's a simple matter of perspective," he told me. We were dancing once more, spinning gracefully. "The masses haven't heard anything better, so they call her the best. We both know she's not."

"Because you are," I tried playfully. I loved his voice; he had the voice of an archangel.

"No, I do believe that it's you, love."

"Maybe I should try out for _Canadian Idol_… We are in Canada after all."

"Never," he said lightly.

"And why not?" I teased. I knew what he'd say. We did have one rule to abide by, after all.

"I have no doubt that you would win, however, I know from experience that the singer who wins the competition will not always be the one with the best voice, but the one who is most appealing to watch on stage," he explained with a crooked smile. I laughed.

"You still think I would win?" Flattering.

"Indisputably. But I'd rather not have to listen to the thoughts of a nation full of Mike Newtons…" I snorted in a rather unladylike way and was about to respond when he suddenly stiffened.

"What's wrong?" I asked, knowing that he must have heard something in the minds of the others.

"Tonight," he said tersely, his jaw taut. "They know we're here. They are going to force a showdown tonight."

"Alice?" I asked. He nodded. Of course. Alice must have seen it. But 'they' didn't know about my nearly omniscient sister. "How are they planning on getting us where they want us?"

"I…we don't know yet. Come on." He pulled me out of the room. I flicked the switch on the stereo and the music was instantly gone. Just like our carefree mood.

We flitted together down four flights of stairs faster than human eyes could have followed. We were in the huge, open living room in a matter of seconds. Alice was already there. Having heard Edward's and my conversation the rest of the family soon joined us.

Carlisle was not due to begin work at the hospital for two more days, the same time we would all join high school. He vacated his study and moved into the room, standing just off to one side. Esme appeared at his side, whispering into his ear in low comforting tones.

Jasper leapt down the last few steps, unable to wait. He bent over Alice protectively, lightly rubbing her arms.

Emmett and Rosalie followed more conventionally, but were both more than a little excited. Contrary to the rest of the family, they were looking forward to facing the sadistic pair of vampires who were tormenting the island. Emmett, obviously, thought it would be fun. Rose, on the other hand, wasn't so easy to predict. Not for me anyways. Edward refused to tell me, saying she'd tell me when she was ready. I'd scoffed at the likelihood of Rosalie purposefully seeking me out. Regardless of the reason, however, Rose was nearly as excited as her enthusiastic husband.

"Tonight, eh?" Emmett asked looking pointedly at Alice. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Since we'd decided to move into Canada, Emmett had been tacking an 'eh?' onto every sentence he could.

"Tonight. I don't think that even they know how they are going to catch our attention, but--" she began.

"They already did," Emmett pointed out unnecessarily.

"But they don't know that," Edward said quickly. Then he continued what Alice must have been about to say. "Alice can see enough of what will happen to give us the element of surprise."

"We won't hurt them," Carlisle interjected. "Whatever happens tonight, we will not be attacking anyone without provocation."

Alice sighed as he spoke, and Edward also seemed to relax. Because of Carlisle's decision something had changed in her visions.

Rosalie hissed. "Provocation? What further provocation could we possibly need? They are murderers!"

"Besides," Emmett added. Edward tensed beside me again, his gaze locked with Alice's. Both were looking into the future, and obviously were horrified by what they saw. "What did we come here for if not to stop them?"

"We came to confront them and _ask _them to stop," Carlisle said.

"No need to _ask_…" Emmett boomed. "We can just _tell_."

"Carlisle's right," Alice said softly, moving only her lips. Rosalie snarled a little under her breath. "We _can't _attack them. They are going to stay in the middle of the city…" Her voice trailed off. Her expression became even more aghast.

"Victoria?" Jasper asked. Alice nodded absently, then shuddered. There was silence for a few seconds while we all waited for further information. Were Edward's and Alice's expressions simply due to the devastation that would be left on the city if it came to a fight? Would someone get hurt? Edward was completely still; I looked up at him. He was growing increasingly angry on top of the horror and… disgust that masked his features.

"Rose," he said roughly without breaking his focus. "Say you'll follow Carlisle tonight. No matter what happens."

Rosalie studied both him and Alice. Neither of them relaxed their pained expressions or showed any signs of life. They weren't even breathing. After several agonizingly long minutes, Alice blinked and shot a pleading glance at our breathtakingly beautiful sister.

"Fine," Rosalie snapped at her. Edward's finger began rubbing small circles on the back of my hand.

"No matter what?" Alice asked. Rosalie didn't answer. "You don't want to know what will happen if we try to attack them…"

When he spoke again Edward sounded abruptly frustrated. "I don't understand it. How could that happen?" I had no idea what he was talking about, but Alice looked at him quickly and his confusion disappeared. "Oh—that could be a problem."

Emmett growled. I smiled a little at his irritation; he couldn't stand only hearing parts of the conversation. The rest of us were at least just as confused. We were missing some vital pieces of information Edward was pulling out of Alice's mind.

"What will happen if we attack them? I promised I'd follow Carlisle's lead, and I will, but don't you think the rest of us should know?" Rosalie demanded.

"Unless we all stay calm and talk to them civilly like Carlisle plans to, we will end up killing humans," Alice said. We all cringed as she elaborated. "I can't see anything else happening. If we even try to attack them somehow we don't even go near them. We all start draining humans in the middle of the street."

"Impossible," Esme said softly.

"That's what I thought until Alice reminded me that one or both of them may have special abilities that we don't know about."

"But physical manipulation? Is that even possible? To be able to make us do something we never would otherwise?" Carlisle asked skeptically.

"It may not work that way," Edward answered. "We just don't know."

"Something in the mind," Carlisle nodded. "Of course… Is it possible that it's something Bella can protect us from?"

No one answered. I looked at Alice's absent face and knew she was probably running through the future again, keeping my shield in mind. I decided to help her out a little. I convinced myself that I would encase my family tightly the entire time we were close to the dangerous pair. It only made sense anyways, with us unaware of any damage they might be able to inflict with their minds.

"Is it something I can stop?" I prodded once I knew that my decision was firm. Edwards arm tightened around my waist as he watched whatever change I'd caused. I squeezed his fingers, which were laced tightly with mine.

"No," Alice told me. Then she continued in a low voice. "It's the male, I think. It's hard to pinpoint what he's doing… It takes longer if you use your shield, Bella. We might actually have a chance if you--"

"No," Edward said, interrupting her sharply. "That doesn't count. There is no chance."

Alice frowned and then amended her statement. "There is a difference when Bella uses her shield while we attack them, but it won't end well… For anyone. The only chance is if we do not attempt to attack them at all. We may still end up in that situation, but we won't end up killing people."

"What about if we don't all go? Or what if most of us wait out of sight of the pair? Do you see anything like that making a difference?" Jasper asked.

"I… don't think so…" was Alice's only response.

"We'll all go together, introduce ourselves, and nothing more," Carlisle said. "Maybe we shouldn't even try to speak with them about their… habits." Noticing Rosalie's and Emmett's displeasure he added, "At least this time."

"I'll be glad when I can hear their thoughts," Edward said.

"Yes," Carlisle said. "So will we all. We will learn a lot about them, no matter how little changes tonight."

No one moved for several seconds, and the tension gradually wore off. We had a plan. I wondered what Alice had meant about them maybe having a chance. Something I might have done to give them more time. What could it have been? Edward had stopped her from saying it, so I could only guess. She'd also said that it probably wouldn't end well, did she mean that one of them would get hurt? Maybe I would.

I shrugged it off. It didn't matter.

Alice sighed and turned to go back upstairs. She grabbed a pair of scissors from the counter and scooped up another of her boxes. The rest of us had unpacked nearly all of our belongings, but for some unfathomable reason Alice was moving at a slow, human pace as she carted box after box into her room.

Suddenly Edward chuckled. I gave him a quizzical look.

"Have you noticed how sluggish Alice is today?" He asked.

"Yes, why's she doing that?"

"We got a little unlucky in the matter of our neighbors."

"Neighbors? You mean they're spying?"

"Mhmm. A 14 year old girl and her best friend... Alice left her curtains open this morning when she started unpacking, and the two girls saw her. They haven't put their binoculars down yet. One of them is actually taking it very seriously. She's collecting every tiny piece of information about us she can. It's kind of funny."

"Serious about spying?"

"She seems to think there's something strange about our family."

"I can't comprehend why that might be," I teased.

"Actually she's way off… She's disturbed mostly by the fact that we painted the house pink." I couldn't help but laugh at that.

* * *

The path we were on was dark and cold, but we took no notice of those things. We were standing completely still, scanning the darkness, waiting. There wasn't anything else we could do. The moon hung heavily in the sky, blanketed by an obscuring cloud. A large, ancient building loomed above us. Like so many of the buildings in Victoria, this church was magnificent.

I thought back to that afternoon.

_We'd spent a couple of hours helping Esme unload boxes from several of the other rooms, including the massive kitchen. The entire house had a rather larger than life feel. Instead of making me feel small, however, the spaciousness left me feeling like there was room to move. After all, none of us were human anymore. The extreme strength and speed that I now possessed meant that small spaces felt more constraining than ever before._

_We all laughed when Alice announced how the other two vampires were going to get our attention. They had just decided on it, though, so we had to wait several more hours before it actually happened. _

_We heard human-paced footsteps coming up the walk, but the sound of a heartbeat was so conspicuously missing that I doubted they could have fooled any of us if we didn't have Alice's visions. The vampire dropped something on the step, hastily rang the doorbell once, and ran away. Ran away at full speed. Full vampire speed._

_I asked Edward if our neighbors had watched that._

"_No," he said. "They watched the house all afternoon, but just now they got bored and went inside."_

_Carlisle made a show of swinging the door open and then stopped to look around as though he were extremely confused that there was no one there. His eyes fell on the small envelope and he picked it up, withdrawing back inside the house. _

_We all knew what the note said, but he ripped it open and read it anyways._

"You are not welcome here. Our coven has claimed the entire island as our hunting range, and so long as you wish to keep all of your body parts, you would be wise to evacuate the area.

"Those who are foolish enough to wish to stay may meet us tonight. There is an old church in Victoria on the corner of Quadra and Mason St. A private walkway behind the monument will serve our purpose for the evening. We will attempt a civil discussion, but if you are not on the mainland by dawn, we will kill you all."

_"Unimaginative brutes, eh? Passing notes," Emmett said. "Reminds me of the bully at elementary school."_

_"It reminds me of you, Em," Edward said. Emmett growled playfully and might have lunged at his brother had Esme not interrupted them. _

_"Not here, boys. You can wait for this weekend can't you?" She pleaded. We were all anticipating our trip 'home' on the weekend. They both smiled rather sheepishly and nodded._

_"Wrestling match, Edward," Emmett insisted. "This weekend in the woods."_

Click, click. Click, click.

Click, click. Click, click.

Two sets of footsteps jerked me back to the present. Two vampires strode towards us on the winding path as we all began breathing once again. The small female was wearing stilettos. Maybe she would get along with Alice, if we weren't enemies. Her heels were making such a sharp noise on the walkway I was sure she would wake up every human in Victoria. She was beautiful; I'd never seen a vampire like her before. She looked like a porcelain doll. Her features were very distinctly Chinese, unique and distinct. Her almond shaped eyes studied me under arched eyebrows. Her bleach-white skin served to add a ghostly quality to her visage.

Standing next to her was an average sized Caucasian man with dark hair who was wearing a tuxedo. Between them they looked fit to attend a formal party. Her dress was a deep shade of purple. I recognized the designer; it was one I had in my own closet. Yes, this girl would get along well with Alice.

I reached out my shield until I could almost touch them, and then let it snap back to enclose each member of my family. I would do my best to keep them all safe.

"Toby and Mei," Edward informed us, nodding to each of them. Carlisle shot a glance at him and he shrugged. I wondered idly what unspoken information had passed between them.

"Zhao Mei-ling," the girl snapped harshly, her voice bouncing through the syllables as though she were singing. I assumed she was correcting Edward's use of her name.

"Clever trick," the male, Toby, said smoothly. With each word he pronounced I felt a slight stabbing pressure on my shield. It was aimed directly at Edward. "It that your only gift? Knowing names of those you have never met?"

I forced my face to remain emotionless through the onslaught of spears his words fired towards my husband. How long would it take him to realize that whatever he was trying to do wasn't working?

"It may be," Edward answered.

"We are all here on business, are we not?" Toby asked smoothly.

"Indeed," Carlisle's answer was delivered just as effortlessly.

"We are not alone. We are simply two representatives whom our coven has sent to speak with you. But the others are not far away." I wanted to wince. Toby spoke each word carefully, enunciated each perfectly, and set off a wave of pressure that actually did cause pain. I shook a little with exertion. It was the first time my shield had ever felt like it might not hold up.

"Really? I have scented only the two of you on the island," Carlisle said. Mei-ling shot a quick glance at Toby, confusion filling her eyes. Edward touched my arm then, and I turned to look at him. He gave me a small nod, one that was nearly imperceptible. I smiled. He knew what Toby's abilities were.

"We could be wrong though Carlisle…" Edward said, letting his words trail off. "We have not seen all of the island."

Carlisle nodded, not in understanding, but in acquiescence.

Edward twisted his head and blinked at Jasper then. Oh, how I wished I could be inside his head sometimes! What was going on now? Whatever Edward had learned from Jasper must have been important, for he looked down at Alice, who lifted her head and smiled. That was a good sign. Maybe Edward had figured out how to extricate us from this situation without coming to the brutality Alice had predicted earlier.

Toby lifted one hand in a gesture of peace and began to speak again. I wondered how many of the silent exchanges going on he had noted. I was so in tune to them that I saw them all. "Our threat is not idle. You shall be gone from this place by tomorrow morning or we will gather our forces and burn and every one of you who is left."

As he said this I felt the greatest pain so far. A point on my shield representing each of my family members throbbed in rythym with his short speech. I took a chance and opened my mind to Edward. The next second his hand curled around my waist protectively. He even shifted me further behind his body.

Edward tapped Carlisle on the shoulder, and Carlisle turned slightly to face him. Esme reached out and clasped my hand in hers. Her other hand was on Carlisle's shoulder.

"We'll be okay," she whispered, to all of us. Mei-ling laughed a slow tinkling laugh.

"If," she said to Esme. "You leave."

"We will," Carlisle said. We all looked at him, except Edward and Alice, trying not to show our shock. We would follow Carlisle, as promised. Rosalie was especially perturbed, and her anger showed. "Of course. We did not wish to intrude. I am sorry."

"There is no need to apologize. We have no quarrel with you, other than that you are here. Now that you have agreed to leave we see no reason to tarry any longer. Goodbye." This time, unlike any other time he'd spoken, nothing tried to pierce my shield. He had stopped. He slipped his arm out from around Mei-ling's waist and captured her hand. Then they began to glide away. The click of Mei-ling's shoes was the only sound for several minutes.

**A/N:** Yay! How did you like that? Please let me know! I am dying to know if you thought I did justice to Bella's voice and to all the other characters. Also, how was the first meeting with Toby and Mei-ling?

Is anyone able to guess what Toby's ability is? If you can guess I'll dedicate the fourth chapter to you!

The old church in Victoria is definitely real—the city has quite a few beautiful buildings!

Chapter 4 is started--but I won't be home at all in the next week, so it'll be a bit of a wait for the next chapter.

_**Preview of **_**Chapter 4: **

_They filed through the lunch line quickly, and then sat together at an empty table in the back corner of the cafeteria._


End file.
